badger – ~*LunaSea*~

Hoban, Russell. Bread and Jam for Frances. New York: Harper Collins, 1993.

Okay. A confession first and foremost. I am fortunate enough to work in a library. While it’s an academic I often can find books for the Book Lust Challenge in our collection. Since we have an Early Childhood reading program that means we have most of Russell Hoban’s books as well; specifically his ‘Frances’ series. Normally it isn’t big deal to grab a children’s book off the shelf, read it at lunch and return it without fanfare. Not so this time. Our copy of Bread and Jam for Frances is over-sized which means walking around with it isn’t as inconspicuous as I would have liked. You can’t exactly slip out from the stacks with a 2′ x 1′ book in your hand without being noticed. It’s not like I can hold it up and announce I’m reading War and Peace, the large print version.

Unlike an earlier Hoban review (Bedtime for Frances) I enjoyed rereading this childhood favorite, Bread and Jam for Frances. This time around I identified with wanting too much of a good thing. Frances the Badger only wants to eat bread and jam. Morning, noon, and night it’s the only meal she will stomach. This time when her parents give in to her every whim the lesson is soon learned. You can have too much of a good thing. I feel the same way about Chipotle restaurant being in my back yard. When it was all the way across the country and harder to get to going there was a treat. Like Christmas. Having the big burritos I obsess over just down the road diminishes their specialness, their chocolate-cakeness, if you will. Frances learns this the hard way, too. While her family is enjoying such delicacies as veal Frances is clearly missing out only she doesn’t know it until the repetition of bread and jam finally gets to her. Soon she too is enjoying lobster salad sandwiches like the rest of her family.

Cute moment in the book: Frances questioning her food: “string” bean, for one. I wished she would have asked her parents where veal comes from. I would have loved their answer to that!

Today is my birthday and it seemed more than appropriate to read something from my childhood.

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust in the chapter called “Russell Hoban: Too Good To Miss” (p 113). PS ~ Only two more books to read from this chapter of More Book Lust.

Hoban, Russell. Bedtime for Frances. New York: Scholastic, 1960.

Sometimes it is difficult to reread something from your childhood. I hate to admit that. Really. To me, that implies a loss of something special. I hit a roadblock when I reread Bedtime for Frances. Simply put, it is a cute little story about a badger that can’t fall asleep. She finds many reasons to stay awake: she needs kisses from her parents, she needs another glass of water, she hears a monster, and she sees a monster. The list goes on and on. This isn’t a badger only phenomenon. As a kid I can remember not wanting to go to sleep and finding a million reasons why I shouldn’t. Once I overheard my parents watching a program in the other room. It was Billy Joel talking about piano lessons. When he demonstrated the exercises he remembered from childhood I jumped out of bed and came running; for those were the very same exercises I had been practicing just the day before. But, back to the problem with rereading some books for kids. Instead of finding Frances cute or even laughable I was annoyed with her dare I say, childish antics. I identified more with the parents who wanted to eat their cake, drink their tea and watch television in peace. I couldn’t understand why they gave into every little Frances whim and request! In the end Frances fell asleep despite having a real life distraction to really keep her awake.

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lustin the chapter, “Russell Hoban: Too Good To Miss” (p 113).